Episode 37: This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible

Hosts: Monica Trinidad & Page May
Guest: Mia Henry
Date: December 11, 2017
Length: 1:02:04

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When we are taught about the civil rights movement, the narratives of communities trained up in armed self-defense and grandmas with guns sitting on their porch all evening are definitely left out. In Charles E. Cobbs Jr.’s book, This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible, we are face-to-face with the vital role that armed self-defense played in the liberation and survival of Black communities. Utilizing personal narratives and Cobb’s experiences in the civil rights movement, he delivers a critical, invisible, and long history of Black people taking up arms to defend themselves against white supremacist violence. We sat down with educator and social justice activist, Mia Henry! Mia is one of the many founders of the Chicago Freedom School, and currently the Executive Director of the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership. Mia also runs Freedom Lifted, a small social enterprise that hosts Civil Rights Movement tours in the deep South.

Key Questions:

1. What is the significance of armed self-defense during the Civil Rights movement?
2. What is nonviolence? What is it not?
3. During the civil rights movement, how does Charles talk about the difference between community organizing and direct action?

Abbreviations used in this episode:
CORE - Congress of Racial Equality
SNCC - Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee